


Smiling For His Sister

by Hierophantastic



Series: Peter's Little sister [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 18:44:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18707803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hierophantastic/pseuds/Hierophantastic
Summary: It's Father's Day.





	Smiling For His Sister

**Author's Note:**

> So this is what dealing with the loss of a fictional character by writing fanfics feels like. Huh.

Her brother was one of the strongest people Morgan knew.

Not physically, because that would probably uncle Bruce despite Peter's enhanced strength. But Peter smiled, and often. He always smiled when Morgan was around. Which is why it hurt her so to see him crying. Not that she blamed him. She was crying too. It was Father's Day.

She sometimes wondered how Peter could smile so much. Because she knew what it was like to lose your father. And she knew it was worse for Peter. Peter told her once that, as far as he was concerned, he had had three fathers and two mothers. He said he was lucky for that, but his eyes were shining. She didn't like shining eyes. Not since _that day_ , seven years ago, when her home was filled with shiny-eyed people except the one she wanted.

She knew why his eyes were shining. Peter Parker had had three fathers and two mothers and all of them loved him. And all of them were gone. 

They were in the park now. Morgan had wanted to be alone for a moment, away from Mom's sad looks and the empty home. Even after seven years it still hurt. On most days it was a dull pain, something she could ignore, but today all she saw on the TV was his tech, all she read in the paper was his company, all she heard on the radio was his name. Everyone knew her Dad and had known him for his entire life. He was a genius, a billionaire, he loved the spotlight. 

All she had were four years worth of memories, most of which blurry and vague.

She had seen Peter in a park and approached him. He was sitting near a pond, staring in the water, with an empty packet from Delmar's next to him. They didn't say a thing as they leaned into eachother. And when they were done sobbing, Peter looked at her with red-rimmed eyes.

And smiled. She honestly didn't know how he could smile, if he was feeling the painful same emptiness she was times five.

"Hey Morg. Didn't think I'd see you here. You alright?"

"Are you?" she replied.

Peter looked a little confused and she could see the answer in his eyes. She might be only eleven, but she wasn't stupid. "Sure," he lied in a shaky voice.

"I miss Dad," she said, looking into the pond.

"I know. I miss him too."

"I miss aunt May too." May had died last year in a car crash. It was too sudden. There were no supervillains or alien invasions. She was just... gone.

Peter was silent, his eyes widened slightly and tears welled up. He rubbed his palm over his eyes. "I miss her too."

"And I would have liked to have met your uncle. And your parents."

"I know, Morg. I-" He took a shaky breath. "I miss them too."

A phone rang. Peter picked his up.

"Um, hello this is- Pepper? Everything- Oh, yeah- Pepper hey, calm down- Morgan's fine, Pepper. She's here with me. We're near Delmar's. Yeah, sure, you can come pick her up. Right, Morg?"

Morgan nodded a slightly guilty look on her face. She shouldn't have just run off. "Tell Mom I'm sorry."

"Morgan is sorry, she says. Yeah, I don't mind. See you in a bit."

Peter put away his phone and turned to Morgan. "You shouldn't have run off like that. Your mother was worried sick."

"I know," she sighed.

"So," Peter's smile widened and she cheered up a little. He could do things like that. Make people happy. "You ready for some sandwiches?"

"No." she shook her head, still smiling. "Cheeseburgers!"

Peter laughed. "Of course."

"And call Ned and MJ and Mom and we'll have lunch with the whole family!"

"The whole family, huh? I'll see what I can do."

\--

Burger King was busy.

Peter felt kinda sorry for the staff to be honest. He was fairly certain they may have just chased away all their usual customers. It wasn't everyday the larger part of the world's most famous heroes gathered in one place.

Morgan's eyes, however, were wide with joy and that made it all better. A young man made his way to their little group, consisting of Morgan, Pepper, and Peter. Ned and Michelle were already inside, and so were Rhodey, Clint and his family, Steve, Sam, the Guardians, and Bruce. The server did his best to avoid openly staring at the tree and the raccoon. He was failing.

"Um, welcome, there is a table there if you want-"

But Morgan simply let out a yell of 'Aunt Nebula!' and ran towards the blue-cyborg-alien, who was sitting with Clint's family, Gamora, and Groot. The man tried to hide his shock.

He was failing.

"Thanks, but we'll be fine," Pepper said with all the tact of a businesswoman. She turned to Peter. "What did you do now, Peter?"

"I didn't do anything!"

"You didn't tell me anything about this, that's for sure. How did you even manage to get them here before us?"

Peter glanced out the window to the grass lawn on the other side of the street, where there were several runic scorchmarks. He wondered if Thor would mind paying for the property damage. "Well-"

"Hey! Loser! Get over here!"

Peter took oppurtunity to escape from Pepper's interrogation. Ned and MJ were sitting at the table next to Nebula's with Star Lord, Sam, Rhodey and Rocket. At the table next to that one were Steve, Clint, Bruce, and Thor. "Hey guys!" He shot MJ.

Ned waved enthusiastically, barely containing his excitement about sitting at the same table as War Machine. The others greeted him as well. MJ just patted the empty space beside her. "So what are we doing here?"

"Um, eating lunch, I think. Didn't I tell you that?"

"Nope. You just said it was a surprise."

"Come on, MJ! You're sitting in front of _War Machine and the Falcon_!" If said heroes were discomfortable by Ned's fanboyism they didn't show it. Rocket and Star Lord were more vocal about them being left out, though. MJ just shrugged.

"You're all a bunch of nerds," she said. Peter threw up his hands.

"What'd I do?"

"Besides letting Morgan manipulate you into doing whatever she wants again?"

"Hey. For the record, this was my idea. She just asked for you and Ned at first."

"Did she now?" Michelle's eyebrows rose.

"Sure, she loves you guys! Said you were part of the family! I think she sees you as sibings by extension."

"And you decided we weren't good enough?"

"What!? No! MJ- That's not-" Rhodey and Sam were chuckling together. Star Lord and Rocket were still arguing over why they were just as - if not more - important than the Avengers. Ned was giving Peter a not so subtle thumbs up. In his book, romantic relationships did not exist without arguments and Peter already seemed to have that part down.

Then cheeseburgers came.

"I don't even like cheeseburgers," Rhodey said, halfway through a bite with a fitting grimace on his face. "I'm just doing this because Morgan's sad."

Sam perked up. "What makes you think she's sad? Looks pretty happy to me." He looked over to where Morgan sat next to Nebula, who had a rare smile on her robotic face.

"It's Father's Day."

Sam paled. "Shit. I forgot."

Rhodey simply nodded as he eyed Peter, whose throat had suddenly dried up and was chewing unenthusiasthically. "What about you, kid? You holding up alright?"

Peter forced a smile. "Yeah, I'm- I'm fine. Great! With all you guys here."

Star Lord rolled his head back and stared at the ceiling. "My dad killed my mother, and tried to kill me and my friends, you know. I blew him up."

Rocket snorted, ignorant of the silence that had settled on the table. "Yeah, but your father was a planet-eating demigod. And a dick as well."

"Mr. Stark wasn't a dick."

"No. He could be a jerk though."

"True."

Gamora looked uncomfortable. At least she had the tact not to talk about _her_ father.

Ned spoke up. "My dad tried to convince me to use a condom when he found out about my hacking because he was afraid I would get a virus."

Peter scrunched his nose as he imagined that conversation, and eventually gave up at trying to hold back his laughter. The others did as well.

Rhodey looked back at Morgan, who was happily talking with Lila Barton. He chuckled.

"Honestly, Peter. You're spoiling her. Tony would love it."

\--

One by one, everyone left. Steve first. He was old, really old now. And athough the serum kept him healthy, the effectd of his age were showing. Then Sam and Rhodey went back to the compound. Then Bruce. Eventually, Thor had to teleport the Barton's and the Guardians home.

"What do you say, sweetie? Let's go home."

"Okay mom," Morgan said. Pepper looked at Peter, Ned and MJ. "What about you? Any of you need a ride home." All three declined. They weren't that far from home.

"Well Morgan, get in the car."

Morgan got in the car, but then, as they were leaving, she lowered the window. Sticking her head out, she waved at Peter.

"'Till next time, brother!"

Because Peter Parker had had three fathers and two mothers, all of them gone, and still manages to smile for his sister.

MJ sighed. "You're such a sap."


End file.
